Due to the economic slowdown prevailing in the country, the state has not been receiving 14 per cent of GST collections, a release from the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's office said.
The Chief Minister held a meeting with officials on the state’s financial position, funds due from the Centre and other issues.
Observing that substantial funds are due from the Centre, KCR has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking the release of funds.
The Chief Minister said due to lack of funds, implementation of many welfare schemes can run into problems in the state. He also accused the Centre of making tall promises in the Parliament on how there is no economic slowdown in the country.
KCR plans to visit Delhi soon to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sitharaman to apprise them of the difficulties that arose because of funds not being released from the Centre.
Following the sharp dip in revenue, the CM has instructed the Principal Secretary (Finance) to reduce funds for all departments in tune with the decrease in funds from Centre and has also asked all departments to cut down on expenditure.
For the financial year 2019-20, for Telangana State under the taxes sharing, the Centre announced in its budget that it will give Rs 19,719 crore. This is 6.2 per cent more than the allocations made in the 2018-19 Budget of Rs 18,560 crore.
However, in the last six months, the Centre has given only Rs 10,304 crore only as the tax share, the press release notes.
In the last financial year, for the eight-month period, the Centre has allocated Rs 10,528 crore. The Centre had also failed to give Rs 2,812 crore IGST funds as part of the GST for 2017-18, it alleged.
The Centre, while implementing the GST Act, had assured states that it would compensate them if the GST revenue was less than 14 per cent. Moreover, the Centre is yet to give Rs 1,719 crore as GST compensation dues.
The state claims it has got 8.3% lesser amount in its tax share account.
Due to the economic slowdown prevailing in the country, the Telangana state is not getting 14 per cent of GST collections, it said.
In other words, compared to 2018-19 financial year, this fiscal, the Centre gave Rs 224 crore less till date, the press release said.
Responding to the state’s claims, the central government officials said that situation is grim and cautioned that the decrease may well go up from 8.3 per cent to 15 per cent, the release said.
(With inputs from PTI)